The price of oil has fallen more than three per cent since Thursday, when it neared $92 a barrel.

The February gold contract also slid in early trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, falling $20.60 to $1,323.90 an ounce. The March copper contract was down 10 cents to $4.24.

In corporate earnings news, Canadian National Railway said its net income in the fourth quarter was $503 million, or $1.08 per share, with $2.1 billion in revenue.

Canadian investors also digested Statistics Canada data released Tuesday that showed Canada’s overall inflation rate was up to 2.4 per cent in December, a jump of four-tenths of a point from the previous month.

December’s increases helped contribute to a general growth in consumer prices throughout 2010.

For the year, Canada’s inflation rate averaged 1.8 per cent, much higher than the 0.3 per cent average in 2009, when inflation at times dipped below zero.

U.S. stocks were heading for a subdued opening ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s first interest rate meeting of the year.

Later in the day, the U.S. Federal Reserve was to start a two-day meeting to discuss interest rates. Few expect any major shifts, even though two new members to the Fed’s policymaking panel have been skeptics of the Fed’s $600 billion Treasury bond purchase plan to help stimulate the economy.

Also Tuesday, some major U.S. companies will release quarterly earnings, including: E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co.; Johnson & Johnson; United States Steel Corp.; and Yahoo Inc.

Slumping stock exchanges in Europe also dented oil prices after fresh data showed that Britain’s economy contracted by half a per cent in the last three months of 2010. Markets had been expecting the country’s economy to continue its recovery.

Shares on mainland China were notably down as investors continued to worry about further attempts by the government to slow growth as it tries to get inflation under control.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped less than 0.1 per cent to 23,788.83 while shares on mainland China were down as investors continued to worry about further attempts by the government to slow growth as it tries to get inflation under control.